Page 56 of Marrying the Enemy

“Oh, grow up,” Eve muttered. “I married Dom to end the feud, not start a fresh one.”

Christo came in wearing a fawn-colored coat over a black turtleneck and jeans. He frowned at Dom. “What are you doing here?”

“He’s being a supportive husband.” Eve was embarrassed by how rude they were.

“Is that what you’re calling him? I thought this was a strategic alliance.” Jackson curled his lip at Nico, apparently not confining his disgust to Dom and Eve.

“Maybe that is all I am to him,” Eve said starkly, stepping forward to get in Jackson’s face. “That’s better than being his enemy. And maybe one of you could have ‘made a strategic alliance’ by now, instead of clinging to bachelorhood like you’re Peter Pan and don’t have any responsibilities to this family yourself.”

They all had the grace to look away while Ginny said, “Eve, please. Can we have some peace while we’re here?”

“Eve is more than a strategic alliance to me.” Dom set the weight of his hands on her shoulders. His steady presence became a bolstering wall at her back. “If you want to hate me for marrying her, go ahead, but don’t take it out on her. Not when Eve is creating peace for all of us. For me.”

He squeezed her shoulders and she looked up, moved by the depth of emotion she found in his eyes. His expression was so tender, her heart swooped.

“When I’m with you, the battle stops. Everything inside me settles. That’s worth everything to me.”

Because he felt safe? Loved? The pinch in her heart clenched harder, but it felt oddly good, too. It wasn’t being compressed. It was breaking past a thin shell, opening like a flower.

She covered one of the hands on her shoulder.

“You’re acting like I’m asking you to surrender.” Dom lifted his gaze to her brothers. “This marriage is a truce. Accept it.”

“I have,” Nico said gravely. “And I appreciate what you’ve done, Lina. Really. We all appreciate it,” he said with a significant glower at her brothers.

Christo rolled his eyes and Jackson gave a discontented shrug as they both offered their hands.

“Congratulations on your marriage,” Christo said.

“Look after her,” Jackson added.

“I intend to,” Dom vowed with such sincerity, hot tears of hope pressed behind her eyes.

“Dad was upset he didn’t get to walk me down the aisle,” Eve told Dom when they arrived back at the penthouse. “At least, that’s what he said. He was pretty loopy from the anesthetic, but I think it was true.”

She hoped it was also true that he loved her and only wanted her to be happy. She’d shed tears of relief all the way home because she thought he must be speaking from the heart, without his normal filter, and it gave her so much hope.

Dom took her coat, not saying anything.

Her glow of optimism dimmed. With her father’s procedure successful and out of the way, their conflict from last night returned to sit between them like a coiled rattlesnake.

“Eve—”

“No, Dom, look. I’m fine. Honestly. I was upset last night because of the way Dad reacted. You’ve never lied to me about how you feel and—”

“You said you loved me from the first time we met,” he interjected. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner? Why did you tell your father instead of me?”

“Because—Because I didn’t want to push you into saying something you don’t feel. And because you make me feel raw and naked and like I’m waiting for you to notice me and want me and like me. Thank you for saying what you did at the hospital. It goes a long way, it really does, but can you at least show me a little pity? It’s hard to love you.”

He drew a sharp breath, head jerking back.

“Not because you’re hard to love,” she rushed to clarify. “You’re so easy to love, Dom. You deserve to be loved. That’s something I knew in here before I knew up here.” She tapped her chest, then her temple. “I was so caught up in the feud, I didn’t know I was falling for you. I only knew I shouldn’t feel anything toward you except hatred. I knew that’s all you felt toward me and that hurt, Dom. You don’t know what it’s like to love someone who resents you and—”

“Do I not?” he shot back. His voice wasn’t loud, but it was so powerful, she felt it like thunder in her chest.

“W-what?”

“I didn’t know what it was, either. How could I? I’ve never felt it. Yes, there was some weak version of it from my mother and my sisters, but it was drowned out by my father’s nastiness and Ingrid’s spite. All I knew was that I’d met a woman who was some kind of supercharged metal and I was a magnet that couldn’t stay away. God, Evie.” He ran his hand down his face. “It was hell to be apart from you. When I left you in Australia, I thought I was going to be sick. I tried to hate you, I did, but I couldn’t even work up hatred for your family anymore. I just wanted you, damn it. I need you. I know that doesn’t make sense, but...”

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